Coil whine, need help pinpointing what it could be. Very loud.

[Armisael191]

Hey all, quick background. I recently upgraded by Motherboard and Video card.
MB: Asus P8-Z77-V LK
Video Card - XFX Double D Radeon HD 7870

Now, for a month everything was working fine, until 2 nights ago I started to hear what sounded like nails on a chalkboard, or coil whine, as others have pointed out in various threads/forums. I even heard someone else's computer through youtube making the coil whine effect, and it is in fact the exact same sound I am having.

The problem for me in particular is this : It happens when the system isn't doing anything heavy. When I'm on the computer, as I am typing, the coil whines pretty consistently(its a bit intermittent, but its very frustrating), but whenever I boot up a graphics intensive game, the whine stops. Not sure why.

Either way, I've been trying to isolate the problem, here's what I have done:

-Replaced the PSU( THREE TIMES I might add, and the reason is a story for a whole other time), as I had recently got a new one. Alas, still coil whine, must not have been the PSU

-Stopped by fans to make sure it wasn't the fan, it wasn't

-Replaced my new 7870 video card, with my old XFX Radeon HD 5770. When I did that, I got down on the floor with my tower, put my ear up to the video card, and I could still hear it intermittently, but no where NEAR as loud as when the 7870 was there. In fact, it's so quiet, I wouldn't ever hear it if I wasn't looking for it. So who's to say my previous card didn't do it before?

-I put my new 7870 back in, and the coil whine is back to being really loud.

Now, I'm trying to figure out if this is a motherboard issue, or a Video Card issue. I would assume GPU, but the coil whine was still happening with my old card, albeit VERY quiet and intermittent(and it was the exact same sound as the previous coil whine, just quieter, so I know it wasn't the fan).

So either my old card always did it and it was too quiet to know, or the motherboard is causing the coil whine with these 2 GPUs.

My money is on the GPU. What do you all think?

I've tried disabling C-states like I've seen in a previous thread, and that didn't help. Even tried playing with the power management settings that others have said, that didn't help either.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as I'm going crazy here.

Thanks all.

 

[Arkadrel]

Lets use deduction:


Stopping fan(s) in system => rule out it being fan noise.

Change PSU 3 times = still coil whine noise => not PSU's fault.

Change GPU = still coil whine (but less) => not GPU's fault (unless both GPUs have this problem)



so its either:
A) most likely motherboard related (a coil on the motherboard).
B) both GPUs you own have some form of coil whine
C) something intirely differnt.


I kinda think B) is unlikely, but it could still happend if you have crazy bad luck.

I honestly think its most likely its a peice on the motherboard makeing all that noise.
The differnce in "load" / "stress" the GPUs give the motherboard, account for the amount of noise it makes.

Why does it start doing this when Ive used it for X years and not heard a sound? answear : mysteries of the PC.

So either my old card always did it and it was too quiet to know, or the motherboard is causing the coil whine with these 2 GPUs.

My money is on the GPU. What do you all think?

My money is on the motherbard, and that it hasnt always done it.
Degradation, or a losening of a component or some minuet change has made it start doing it
(PC still works fine, and will most likely keep doing so, dispite this noise).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise

Coil noise is, as its name suggests, caused by electromagnetic coils. These coils, which may act as inductors or transformers, have a certain resonant frequency when coupled with the rest of the electric circuit, as well as a resonance at which it will tend to physically vibrate.

electrical oscillation occurs, creating a small magnetic field. Normally this magnetic field simply works to establish the inductance of the coil. However, this magnetic field can also cause the coil itself to physically vibrate.

^ sage advice!

Now start checking the "screw's" your motherboard has, make sure their tightened (this could be 1 screw that holds the motherboard down thats gone lose or something silly like that).

Start putting a finger (or something else that doesnt conduct electristy) on various components of your motherboard (while its makeing the noise), and see if you can "rule" out all the components by placeing your finger gently on them (to keep them from vibrateing at that feqency).

Find the "lose" or vibrateing peice, and tape it down or something lmao
Id suggest GLUE, but im not sure how hurtfull that would be.

*IF* its your motherboard and you still have warrenty you could RMA it for coil whine, and maybe get a new one returned (or they send the same back saying they couldnt hear it).
But honestly if you can "fix" the issue, it shouldnt effect how long the motherboard or another peice of hardware lives or its stability.

 

[Xarick]

Your motherboard is causing it.

 

[Armisael191]

Alright, brand new motherboard -_-

I'll see if I can RMA it or go buy a replacement at a store near me with a 30 day return policy to isolate it. I'll get back to you if anything turns up. Thanks all.

 

[Plimogz]

Given Arkadrel's deductive process, I would tend to say GPU isn't that unlikely, except from my experience the whine from GFX cards gets worse when you fire up a demanding program, not better.

So my best guess, like his, is mobo. Though I've yet to encounter a motherboard that whines enough to bother me; so maybe you have an especially sensitive ear (though gfx card whine is not at all uncommon, so if yours is quieting down overall when you play 3d games, that probably isn't it.) Or more likely, you have really noisy motherboard. It could happen, I guess.

Oh! and I see that your board has onboard video out. Does your CPU have integrated graphics? You could eliminate the graphics cards as possible suspects altogether by using that for some tests.

 

[Armisael191]

It does have integrated graphics, I didn't think about removing the card entirely and seeing what happens.

I've had others on other forums say that its more than likely the GPU because "99% of the time coil whine is GPU, there's nothing that can be done about it, buy louder fans to drown it out"

It didn't do it for the first month I had the card -_-

 

[Arkadrel]

I've had others on other forums say that its more than likely the GPU because "99% of the time coil whine is GPU, there's nothing that can be done about it, buy louder fans to drown it out"

Coil whine doesnt "always" come from coils.
ANY damn component nearly can do it.

Also if it "doesnt" make any noise, when your useing the IGP, you still cannot rule out the motherboard.

It could be the part makeing the "noise" isnt being used, when your running on the IGP.
Thus you get a new GPU, and the issue remains.


As for the likely hood that its the GPU vs Motherboard....
I think it has something to do with the insane speeds certain components run on graphics cards.
So yeah Id agree, I think its overall more common on GPUs than on motherboards.
But probably not by 99% thats a overexageration by quite a bit. Its common on motherboards too, and hell even other places like the PSU ect.

...from my experience the whine from GFX cards gets worse when you fire up a demanding program, not better.

^ this is my experiance as well.
I think its more rare for coil whine to happen at lower fequencies than at higher ones, atleast for GPUs.

 

[Xarick]

I actually just RMAed my graphics card because the whine actually got worse when I enabled vsync in games like cs:go and apparently that is the opposite of what is suppose to happen.

 

[Arkadrel]

I actually just RMAed my graphics card because the whine actually got worse when I enabled vsync in games like cs:go and apparently that is the opposite of what is suppose to happen.

Thats just what "normally" happends. Not what always happends.

I believe its "chance".

You know how a bridge can be buildt to width stand hurricanes and whatnot, but sometimes gentle brises come in "just the right" fequence so the waves (energy) builds and builds upon it self?

same principle.

When its going fast, the "fequency" could be out of harmony with the fequency the "component" is self resonanceing with, or something wierd like that.

Thus the build up, could be stronger even when the card is not running its fastest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance

In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate with greater amplitude at some frequencies than at others. Frequencies at which the response amplitude is a relative maximum are known as the system's resonant frequencies, or resonance frequencies.

 

[Armisael191]

I have hooked up the integrated graphics. No coil whine. I still don't think it rules out the motherboard. I'm thinking about heading up to best buy to buy a new card(since they have a 30 day return policy for a full refund) to try and diagnose it that way. If I still get coil whine, it's the MB.

 

[Armisael191]

Update:

Went out and bought a GTX 660 TI. So far no coil whine. Maybe it was the GPU. Although, my 7870 didn't do it for over a month, so who knows?

 

[Arkadrel]

@Armisael191

I must say Im surprised it turned out to be the GPU... you must have really bad luck if you had 2 GPUs in a row that both had coil whine.

Anywho... its nice to see you found a solution to it.

 

[Armisael191]

Well the first one had coil whine, but only so quiet that I wouldn't have heard it had i not put my ear directly up to the GPU itself. It was the same sound effect, only much much quieter. Whereas the new one was LOUD. So far, with the new card, no Coil Whine. So we'll see. I have 15 days to return this card with a full refund.

Part of me wants to go out and buy a new mobo and put it my 7870 and see if it does coil whine. I still may do that. I'll keep this thread informed.

****EDIT: After sitting with my ear up close to the new card, I can now say that the coil whine is still there, only about as quiet as the old card.

So,
5770 - Coil Whine, but so quiet I never would've heard it without me putting my ear up to it.
7870- Coil Whine, extremely loud and very aggrivating
GTX 660 TI - Coil Whine, but so quiet I never would've heard it without putting my ear up to it.

3 different cards, 2 different brands.

Gotta be motherboard. Will be returned the 660 TI tomorrow and buying a new Motherboard to see if that fixes the issue.

 

[Armisael191]

Alright, here I am with an update. tl;dr at bottom.

Bought a new mobo, Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H

No fix. After 5-10 minutes of my comp being on, the coil whine started while idle. I get very frustrated. I start to look at the catalyst software suite, I monitor my GPU. Whenever the coil whine starts(which is when my comp is idle, it is SILENT when I am playing games), the activity, and temperature raises on my GPU. The second the whine stops, the activity and temperature drop back down. So I think "It's definitely the video card then".

So as I wait for XFX(whose support sucks btw), I decide to start looking up some other things. I thought to myself "what is one of the things I changed in my CPU shortly before this started happening", then I realized I bought a new SSD and HDD.

After reading reviews on the SSD I bought(it had over 400 reviews and a 4 star rating and it was an OCZ Tech SSD), I saw a lot of people complaining about having problems with it within a couple days to a couple weeks of owning it. I dug deeper, looked up "SSD coil whine" and found some interesting threads where others have stated that they had major coil whine, but ONLY when their SSD was hooked up. I thought this was crazy because the SSD has no moving parts. So, what do I do? I go out and buy another SSD, hook it up, and going on 2 hours now so far without a single coil whine(it always happens in 5-10 minutes on the previous SSD). So I unhook my new one, hook up my old one, BAM, coil whine.

It seems the SSD IS the issue, as crazy as it sounds. Has anyone else heard of this before? I'm guessing something is being transmitted through the PSU from the SSD to cause this coil whine. Must be a defect in the SSD.

Either way, as of right now, the problem has been solved. If anything happens within the next few days, I'll come back and update.

tl;dr SSD seems to be the issue. Bought a new one, no more coil whine.

P.S. Can software cause coil whine? Maybe it's something installed on the old SSD? I could always try reformatting it to see if that would fix anything.

 

[UaVaj]

ssd causing gpu to coil wine.

keep us posted.

 

[blastingcap]

I'm sorry if I missed it, but what brand SSD was this?? You said OCZ but what model?

 

[Armisael191]

The Vertex 4 model.

 

[ChippyUK]

As I remember I seemed to have this issue found with several micro ATX boards. The fix was to disable the CPU energy setting (Think it was something like disabling both C & C1e state) in bios.

This made the whine almost completely vanish. Worth a shot.

 

[Arkadrel]

It seems the SSD IS the issue, as crazy as it sounds. Has anyone else heard of this before? I'm guessing something is being transmitted through the PSU from the SSD to cause this coil whine. Must be a defect in the SSD.

LMAO
It was the damn harddrive hahahhaa... was not expecting that.

 

[Armisael191]

As I remember I seemed to have this issue found with several micro ATX boards. The fix was to disable the CPU energy setting (Think it was something like disabling both C & C1e state) in bios.

This made the whine almost completely vanish. Worth a shot.

Had already tried that awhile back. No fix at all. Not using a Micro ATX board also.

UPDATE:
After reformatting the SSD that was causing the coil whine, I'm not receiving any coil whine now.
I haven't been using it for an extended amount of time since the reformat. i'm still going to try and return it and get a refund, as it could begin the coil whine again at anytime.

 

[Xarick]

I know this is an odd suggestion. But did you try moving the SSD further away from the GPU.

 

[UaVaj]

UPDATE:
After reformatting the SSD that was causing the coil whine, I'm not receiving any coil whine now.
I haven't been using it for an extended amount of time since the reformat. i'm still going to try and return it and get a refund, as it could begin the coil whine again at anytime.

software on ssd causing gpu to coil wine.

keep us posted.

-----

on a serious note. can you duplicate the gpu coil whine with the installed software on the ssd?

based on the original post.

"-Replaced my new 7870 video card, with my old XFX Radeon HD 5770. When I did that, I got down on the floor with my tower, put my ear up to the video card, and I could still hear it intermittently, but no where NEAR as loud as when the 7870 was there. In fact, it's so quiet, I wouldn't ever hear it if I wasn't looking for it. So who's to say my previous card didn't do it before?

-I put my new 7870 back in, and the coil whine is back to being really loud."

culprit was definitely the video card.

 

[Armisael191]

I know this is an odd suggestion. But did you try moving the SSD further away from the GPU.

It is as far away as it can go.

Also, in response to the post directly above:

The card is completely quiet with no issues or coil whine in over 24 hours with a new SSD in. I'm not sure what's going -_-

Although after speaking to OCZ, it's apparently NOT an uncommon issue. They also said that a lot of Corsair power supplys (which I'm not using) cause coil whine with their SSD's. Good job, OCZ :sneaky: